E-Man
E-Man is a fictional comic book superhero created by writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton for Charlton Comics in 1973. Though the character's original series was short-lived, the lightly humorous hero has become a cult-classic sporadically revived by various independent comics publishers. Publication history Charlton Comics The character premiered in E-Man #1, the first of ten issues (cover-dated Oct. 1973 - Sept. 1975) published by the Derby, Connecticut-based Charlton Comics.[http://www.comics.org/series/2086/ E-Man (Charlton, 1973 series)] at the Grand Comics Database For the last four, artist Staton created painted covers, a comics rarity at the time. The stories were humorous and lighthearted, in the style of Plastic Man, especially as E-Man could form himself into anything he wanted.E-Man at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original December 8, 2011. .]] Backup features were Cuti and Tom Sutton's "The Knight", starring a superspy agent of C.H.E.S.S.; Joe Gill and Steve Ditko's "Liberty Belle"; two stories of writer-artist Ditko's superhero "Killjoy"; the time-traveling "Travis", by Cuti and Wayne Howard; and, in the color-comics debut of John Byrne, three stories of "Rog-2000", written by Cuti and starring a wiseacre, cigar-smoking robot Byrne had created in his fan-artist days. A supporting character, the grubby but right-hearted detective Mike Mauser, got his own backup series in Charlton's Vengeance Squad. An additional E-Man story, which introduced his energy-being "sister", Vamfire, appeared in the company's in-house fan magazine, Charlton Bullseye #4. In 1977, six issues were reprinted under the Modern Comics label for sale as bagged sets in discount department stores such as North America.[http://www.comics.org/series/12388/ E-Man (Modern 1970s, 1977 Series)] at the Grand Comics Database First Comics In 1983, during a period of financial uncertainty for Charlton,. the company sold independent publisher First Comics the rights to E-Man. First's E-Man ran 25 issues (April 1983 - Aug. 1985), with the company also publishing a seven-issue miniseries, The Original E-Man and Michael Mauser, that reprinted those characters' Charlton stories.[http://www.comics.org/series/2811/ E-Man (First, 1983)] at the Grand Comics Database Staton did the artwork, with stories written by Martin Pasko, Paul Kupperberg, Cuti, and Staton himself. In the course of the run, Staton acquired certain rights to the character from First, although First Comics retained ownership of those stories that had been published by them. As Staton described in an interview published in 2001, }} 's "Killjoy", a two-issue backup feature]] Later publications Several years after the cancellation of the First Comics series, Comico Comics published an E-Man one-shot (Sept. 1989) by Cuti and Staton,[http://www.comics.org/series/3898/ E-Man (Comico, 1989 Series)] at the Grand Comics Database followed by a three-issue miniseries (Jan.-March 1990).[http://www.comics.org/series/4089/ E-Man (Comico, 1990 Series)] at the Grand Comics Database After Comico's demise, Alpha Productions did two one-shot publications, E-Man (Sept. 1993) and E-Man Returns (1994).[http://www.comics.org/series/4901/ E-Man (Alpha Productions, 1993 Series] at the Grand Comics Database[http://www.comics.org/series/46176/ E-Man Returns (Alpha Productions, 1994 Series] at the Grand Comics Database E-Man appeared in the two-page story "Come and Grow Old With Me", by Cuti and Staton, published in the magazine Comic Book Artist #12 (March 2001). Cuti and Station reteamed for three one-shots by Digital Webbing Press published the one-shots E-Man: Recharged (Oct. 2006); E-Man: Dolly (Sept. 2007); and E-Man: Curse of the Idol, per its cover-logo trademark, a.k.a. E-Man: The Idol, as copyrighted, per its postal indicia (Nov. 2008), each with Cuti & Staton as the creative team, abetted by co-writer Randy Buccini on the third. [http://www.comics.org/series/20285/ E-Man: Recharged (Digital Webbing, 2006 Series)] at the Grand Comics Database[http://www.comics.org/series/27286/ E-Man: Dolly (Digital Webbing, 2007 Series)] at the Grand Comics Database[http://www.comics.org/series/33489/ E-Man: The Idol (Digital Webbing, 2008 Series)] at the Grand Comics Database The indicia for each listed E-Man as Copyrighted by "Joe Staton/First Comics". A previously unpublished E-Man story (done originally for Alpha Productions) by Cuti & Staton, saw print in Charlton Spotlight #6 (2008), along with an unpublished Mike Mauser story. Fictional character biography E-Man is a sentient packet of energy thrown off by a nova. Traveling the galaxy he learned about life, how to duplicate the appearance of life, and good and evil. Reaching Earth, he met exotic dancer/grad student Katrinka Colchnzski (who attended Xanadu University), also known as Nova Kane (novocaine), and formed himself into a superhero dubbed E-Man, with a civilian identity dubbed "Alec Tronn" (electron). His emblem was the famous mass-energy equivalence formula "E=mc2", and his powers included firing energy blasts from his hands, changing his appearance, and transforming part or all of his body into anything he could envision (e.g., turning his feet into jet engines so he could fly). Nova would later be caught in a nuclear explosion and gain the same powers as E-Man and become his partner; later still, she would lose her powers and become a normal human being again, only to regain her powers sometime afterward. During their early adventures they picked up a pet koala named Teddy Q, whose intelligence grew to the point where he had a job waiting tables in a cafe. References External links *E-Man at An International Catalogue of Superheroes. WebCitation archive. *Archive of Alec Tronn's E-Man Fan Page. Some graphics missing; scroll down and links still work. Original page. Further reading * Back Issue #13 (Dec. 2005): "E-Man: Cosmic Hero for the '70s" (Nick Cuti and Joe Staton interview), pp. 34–47 Category:Charlton Comics superheroes Category:Charlton Comics titles Category:First Comics titles Category:Comico Comics titles Category:1973 comic debuts